Theo Todman's Family Page
(Text as at 01/10/2021 13:17:46)
This page has a tendency to get out of date, so any ages and information herein have to be co-ordinated with the latest-change date, which (whatever might be said above) is early July 2021.
- Human Family:
- I've been happily married to Julie since October 1979. Julie retired at the end of 2017 from her role as an Occupational Therapist at Southend University Hospital helping to rehabilitate amputees but remains a mainstay and former Church Warden of St. John the Divine, Outwood Common, Billericay.
- We have three children. They are all grown up now, and are no longer keen on me advertising their activities, so I’ve been sparing on the details below1. However, they are:-
- Becky: has been married to Tim since July 2016. They live in Coggeshall, Essex2, and their first child – Tommy – was born in early February 2018 and their second – Lili – in early June 2020. Both are healthy and doing what you’d expect of children their age. Becky works nearly full-time for Samaritan’s Purse in Buckhurst Hill3, and Tim works for the Environment Agency.
- Naomi: is married to Leandro and lives in Greenwich, London, and works for the Central YMCA.
- Nathaniel: Works as a software developer for a small private company based in Good Easter, near Chelmsford. He has achieved his dream of being allowed to work remotely from the Far East, living in Bangkok, Thailand with his wife, Fon.
- This could go on and on, but …
- I have a slightly-younger brother – Julian – who lives in Gloucester, and a much younger sister – Victoria – who lives in Weston-Super-Mare.
- Julie had two older brothers: Chris, who lives in London, and Stephen who lived in Ipswich, but who sadly died at the start of the pandemic from a Covid-like illness (though he tested negative).
- All our parents and aunts and uncles are now deceased4.
- Julie has a cousin, Linda, who lives in the West Country and I have a cousin Rachel who lives in Perth, Australia.
- Non-Human Family:
- We have a dog – a dogtime.com: Tibetan Terrier named Henry. He’s 9 or so now. He doesn’t perform any tricks, but looks very wise, though Naomi thinks he’s only thinking about sausages.
- We had a cat named Mouse but he had to be put down aged around 13 at the end of January 2020.
- We once had a small flock of flightless ducks on our pond, but sadly they are no more5.
- The old floating duck-house is periodically occupied by moorhens – we’ve had up to 8 of them at any one time – but they are wild birds and they come and go. The chicks are very sweet, and there are usually two batches of half-a-dozen or so each year. Given that the world isn’t over-run by moorhens, necessarily few of the chicks survive. My suspicion is that the local corvids – crows and magpies – find them to be a tasty snack, though this summer’s crop all seem to have survived.
- We’ve a much larger and newer floating duck-house which the moorhens despise, but which we hope the migrant mallards might take up home in from time to time.
- We’ve has a sequence of chickens housed in their Eglu Classic Chicken Coop. Unfortunately, they had a habit of not returning to roost, and fell victim to the local fox. The hen-house is currently vacant.
- I've always been interested in our pets’ cognitive capacities, and enjoy taking Henry for walkies. He counts as a member of the family.
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 1: Some of which are in any case subject to change as we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.
Footnote 2: See Coggeshall Parish Council.
Footnote 3:
- Becky has very understanding employers and has been working at her or our home throughout the pandemic.
- Julie helps with the child-care two days a week – one day in Billericay and one in Coggeshall.
Footnote 4:
- I may still have an uncle John somewhere in the West Country, but my mother disowned him and I’ve not seen him since I was tiny.
- Also, I don’t know how many relatives I have on my father’s side, as my mother discouraged my father from maintaining contact.
Footnote 5:
- We acquired a couple of Indian Runner ducks from a neighbour; names Dillon and Marley. Two Bobs, though one turned out to be female and got eaten by the fox.
- We also acquired from another neighbour a second pair – a male Appleyard and a female Peking – which had had their wings clipped. The Peking sadly got consumed by the fox soon after arrival.
- The residual pair of male ducks were inseparable, and the Appleyard had lost his green patina. Sadly, the fox eventually got to them as well.
Table of the Previous 4 Versions of this Note:
Note last updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
01/10/2021 13:17:46 |
1150 (Theo Todman's Family Page) |
Theo Todman's Personal Page |
Summary of Notes Citing This Note
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2023